Death are equally inexorable; they both take our babies
from us."

"But not after the same fashion," replied Mr. Wayne. "Death takes them
from our sight, where we cannot witness their growth and development,
cannot know into what beauty they have blossomed."

"Still," said Mrs. Wayne, "we do not recognize the changes Time makes
until they are accomplished. So gradually does the blossom unfold that
there is no day to which we can point as the day on which the bud became
the full blown flower. On what day did Helen cease to be a baby and
become a child? On what day will she cease to be a child and become a
woman?"

"We will know when the actual physical change takes place, but even
after that I trust there will remain to us something of our little girl.
I do not like to think of her approaching the sentimental age. How old
is she?"

"Thirteen."

"Well, we need have no present fear of a sudden development of
sentimentality."

"Fortunately, no," replied Mrs. Wayne, "though many a mother of girls no
older than Helen is troubled with the question of beaux. Helen, however,
has had the good fortune to have for friends boys who seemed to enjoy
her comradeship, and I have been very careful not to suggest that their
relation could possibly border on the sentimental. So far, she has been
perfectly obedient and ever ready to adopt my ideas on all subjects. We
have been such close friends that I believe I am acquainted with her
inmost thoughts, and if she had felt any romantic emotions I believe she
would have confessed them to me."

"Happy mother!" said Mr. Wayne approvingly, "I wish all girls found in
their mothers their closest friends and confidants. By the way, you have
always talked freely to her about life's mysteries; have you explained
her approaching womanhood to her?"

"Not yet," was the reply. "Perhaps I have been a little unwilling to
believe that she is really nearing that crisis. I cannot bear to lose
my little girl," and Mrs. Wayne looked into her husband's face, smiling
through her tears.

"Yes, I can understand that," he said, "and yet we believe that only
through the normal development of her physical nature can she be the
'woman perfected.' I beg of you not to postpone your instruction too
long. I am more and more convinced that right knowledge not only
safeguards purity, but really produces true modesty. To give a young
person a reverent knowledge of self is to insure that delicacy of
thought which p